The invention relates in general to munitions and in particular to fire control systems for munitions.
Conventional automated fire control systems for artillery and mortars are designed for specific weapon platform applications. However, these systems typically share a commonality of basic functions. These basic functions include positioning and navigational capabilities, digital communications with an off-platform Fire Direction Center, computation of ballistics, indication of the current weapon orientation in the horizontal and vertical planes, vertical and horizontal weapon movements required to aim the weapon for firing on the target, and the ability to inductively set fuzes for firing.
There are many benefits to using a single fire control system for multiple weapon platforms. Commonality of fire control lessens the burden of training gun crews. Additionally, it lowers the logistical burden by maintaining a minimal number of common parts. It also lowers the system life-cycle costs associated with hardware and software development.
Heretofore, setting of electronic inductive fuzes has been accomplished with a hand-held stand-alone setter device. Since small amounts of data were involved it was not difficult to enter the data manually into the setter. With the development of more sophisticated munitions, such as the Global Positioning System (GPS)-guided M982 Excalibur, significantly more data must be passed to the munitions prior to firing. Manual entry of this quantity of information is not practical and is error prone. To eliminate errors and expedite the process, it is desirable to have the data from the command and control center digitally transferred to the setter. This transfer of data is facilitated through or computed by the fire control system.